#MAKE THE DAHM GAME

[talesofakademi]

The fact that Yandere dev made 1980s mode proved that he’s just stalling.

[venusmage]

Ask time! What era/type of art would you say you draw the most inspiration from?

oh god this is really hard. Mostly because my inspirations are all over the place! One is 2010's webcomics! A very broad category, I know, but I was really into reading comics when I was in highschool, and a lot of amazing ones were coming out around that time. The Meek (Der-shing Helmer), HINABN (Tess Stone), Lackadaisy (Tracy Butler), and anything by Evan Dahm (the artist behind Riceboy/Vattu/etc). I somehow avoided Homestuck, but Prequel Adventure (Kazerad) rewired my little Oblivion-Obsessed brain.

Speaking of Oblivion - the concept art for all three mainline games in the Elder Scrolls series did SO much for my imagination. Adam Adamowicz is one of my all time favorite artists, and I think his work on Oblivion was overlooked because of his (also stellar) work in Skyrim. There's an entire flickr album of his concept art for TES IV, though, and I recommend it! What that man could do with art markers bewilders me even now. I think this might be the single most impactful art influence I have.

The close runner-up would be the aforementioned Evan Dahm's work. I think he's still, years later, criminally underrated in terms of public appreciation and discussion. For me, Rice Boy blew open so many doors regarding art style, presentation, and character design. Vattu then stunned with just how much of an epic it was and it's fantastic titular main character. Now 3rd Voice is perhaps his most technically beautiful comic yet, and seems to meld the weirdness of Rice Boy with Vattu's super gripping character arcs and worldbuilding.

The way his comics are paced (both in story and the literal pacing of how he organizes his panels/the art in them) is my favorite...ever. Even though they're simple, he just gets the framing down so perfectly it's crazy. The fact he can make such alien characters so human in how they act and how we view them astounds me. I really do - no hyperbole or empty flattery intended - think he's a modern day comics master and I need more people to discuss his body of work.

Also all of his comics are FREE to read on his website rice-boy[dot]com! They're also on webtoon if you're already dedicated to that platform, and the blog @riceboycomic was basically a republishing of Rice Boy with added artist commentary. If you're not ready to dive into the behemoth that is Vattu yet (its over 1000 pages, though it's so worth it), 3rd Voice is his newest work and you can catch up to the current page (288) within an hour. Rice Boy is also pretty short, under 500 pages. Please do yourself a favor and get lost in one of the quiet, uncanny, heartfelt worlds he's created (and then talk to me about it pleaaaseee).

[logicpng]

Artist ask game!!:3

6 7 8 11 13 and 14 Hope these aren't too many!! (Cuz I am holding back from asking even more-)

11 and 13 already answers but i can tackle the rest :3

6. Favorite and least favorite angles/perspectives to draw?

yknow top/bottom angles are extremely difficult but they're SO satisfying when you can get them right. with a decent reference and enough practice you really can just tackle anything! i don't really have a Least favorite angle, but facing front are the most annoying ones to get right. symmetry my beloathed

7. Who are some artists that have inspired you?

ohhh there's a lot. i think ggdg comes up first because their colors in Cucumber Quest and other works are Delicious. evan dahm's comics have been inspired me to try comics, i love Rice Boy to bits, Order of Tales and Vattu are are also fantastic. i love the surrealism in Hylics, Mason Lindorth is an amazing artist, Joel G's ENA is an incredible series that has been an inspiration to me.

i think special mention goes to Partycoffin's Welcome Home for inspiring me to convert CaelOS from an AU to a personal project that has now grown much larger than its AU iteration has. However. the fame that Welcome Home has gained no joke Horrifies me and i hope CaelOS never explodes like that.

and Dev Palmer's re:curse. idk man playing through it and listening to the music makes me believe i can make a little game about CaelOS one day too. though there's a funny thing...

the whole caroline house folder thing (if you know you know! play the dang game!!!) completely by accident ended up pushing me to make Aster Assistant Software. all because i really thought "caroline house" was going to be an ukagaka for a second!!!!

but yeah there's a lot.

14. Do you prefer to make fan content or original content?

see that's an extremely tricky question to answer because my entire gallery has been driven by whatever i was hyperfixated on at one point or another. before april i'd easily tell you fan content was preferable

but now i feel a lot more fulfilled putting out these projects and chunks of story i want to create bit by bit. in part the fact that this is my original work that i have to actually Make drives me because it doesn't depend on outside opinion. i also have some events in mind already, how the main story starts and ends.

Project ASTER is more of a prelude to the whole thing, an exercise btw. it doesn't take part in the main story, but it helps a lot for me to put down Aster's backstory on paper

problem is though is i have no idea for how long this will last. i think the fact that there's several mediums being worked into it helps me keep interest. drawing, writing, programming, 3d modeling, and i'm strongly considering music as well. we'll have to see

[rickyreeves1980]

Streets of Rage 3 is a side-scrolling beat 'em up developed, and published, and written by Sega in 1994 for the Genesis. It is the third installment of the Streets of Rage series and the last game in the original trilogy. The game includes several changes over Streets of Rage and Streets of Rage 2, such as a more complex plot, inclusion of character dialog, longer levels, more in-depth scenarios and faster gameplay. Weapons can be integrated with unique moves with certain characters, hidden characters were added, and a few cutscenes were included to give the story greater depth.

It was later released for the Japanese version of Sonic Gems Collection for the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and the Wii Virtual Console in September 2007. The game also appeared in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game also appeared in Sega Genesis Classics for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

After being defeated twice, Syndicate crime boss Mr. X has started a research company called RoboCy Corporation to act as a cover for his illegal activities. The world's best roboticist, Dr. Dahm (Dr. Zero in Japan), has been brought in to help him create an army of realistic robots to replace important officials from the city. With the replacements in place, Mr. X plans to run the city using a remote control device. His criminal organization, The Syndicate, has strategically placed bombs around the city to distract the police while the city officials are dealt with.

Dr. Zan discovers what the research is really for and knows the Syndicate must be stopped. He contacts Blaze Fielding with the details of The Syndicate's plan. Blaze quickly contacts her old comrades Axel Stone and Adam Hunter for a task force to bring down The Syndicate once and for all. Axel quickly joins the task force, but Adam cannot make it (due to his own assignments from within the police) and sends his young brother, Eddie "Skate" Hunter instead. The game has four endings depending on the difficulty level and if the player defeats certain levels in an allotted amount of time.

[lotsadeer]

do you have a top 5 webcomics? :o

I do!

Not in any particular order:

-Rubyquest

-Questionable Content

-Rice-boy

-Homestuck

-The Property of Hate

Theres definitely more I could throw in there. Kill 6 Billion Demons, Lackadaisy, Vattu, Dan and Mab's Furry Adventure, etc. But the 5 I listed I think are good examples of GOOD webcomics.

Rubyquest is a premiere example of an audience participation comic, and by extension Nanquest as well. They give the audience the opportunity to choose what they see and what the main character interacts with, and the consequences of those choices cannot be undone. Also the horror? Horror good.

QC is OLD. Hark! a Vagrant voice "Old as balls" (joke). It's a prime example of how a webcomic can start from two guys on a couch and become a well rounded story with a world that feels LIVED IN. It came from the era of webcomics that were spawned by Penny Arcade and CTRL+ALT+DEL, and came out of it like a fucking phoenix from the ashes of its failed brethren. Characters develop and become people, and the author shows a fundamental understanding of how a good character arc should go while still keeping the overall tone of the comic comedic.

Rice-boy is one of those comics that's kind of like a cryptid. It doesn't play with it's space or story the way other comics do, it doesn't have a gimmick. You discover it and leave its world changed as a person. Every Evan Dahm comic is like this, he is a master at what he does. But Rice-boy I, personally, think is the best example of this.

Okay I need you to stay with me on this one, okay? Is Homestuck a good story? Debatable. Is Homestuck worth reading? Also debatable. Did Homestuck change the webcomic game permanently? Absolutely. Hussie and their team did so much to play inside and outside of the webcomic sandbox that these days if a webcomic DOESN'T break its own website to make a plot point I'm concerned. It is a multimedia nightmare, and I'm not going to give Hussie all the credit for the brilliance of how it twists and bends and warps the space, but man. They sure did facilitate some interesting and honestly riveting shit.

The Property of Hate you already know. It was on your own list! I've been reading it since it started basically. ModMad has taken everything I said above that makes these other comics masterworks in the space and made them her own. The world is vast and lived in and horrifying and beautiful and her work as a cartoonist and interest in physical comics and filmography only adds to it. I am consistently amazed at what she pulls off. It may not be a multimedia nightmare like Homestuck is, but Mod gets the same *feeling* of multimedia that Homestuck has. It's like a fucked up magic trick.

[selineram3421]

HC 12 where Alastor got into a fight with Vox, who managed to get wires around his throat and microphone, breaking his ways to talk. Reader finds out and helps make sure he isn't bored while recovering? (Plus some assurances about not being weak despite the temporary loss)

Ok, I hope you don't mind me using this as the next part of the Dream demon reader stories. Nightmare

HC 12: "Can you talk?"

Radio Silence

Platonic: Alastor & Reader Oneshot

Wanring! ⚠

⚠ blood, descriptive injuries, cussing, Jeffery Dahmer mention ⚠

~

"Good evening! I'm Katie Killjoy.", a blonde skinny demon introduces herself as soon as the cameras start rolling, now on air.

"And I'm Tom Trench!", a smaller demon with a gas mask says. "A brawl between two overlords has occurred at the T.V. studio. The Radio Demon Alastor and one of the Three V's, Vox!"

Pictures appear on the screen of the mentioned demons. A glitched out picture of Alastor and a clear high definition one for Vox.

Katie's smile widens. "That's right! These two overlords have had it out for each other since their first meeting! Getting into multiple battles!", she says and grabs her cup of coffee.

Tom flinches as the cup moves. "Haha!", he laughs nervously and pulls on the collar of his shirt. "They've been fighting for over a few hours now. Tearing up the streets and causing chaos!"

Footage of the fight is shown on screen, there's debris and bodies littering the ground. The two overlords are ways away but still visible for the viewers. There's tendrils and wires destroying everything in its way.

"No one knows what the reason for this fight was, but who cares!? We're getting views!", Katie says.

Something is flung towards the camera and the feed goes out, turning the screen into static.

"Looks like we'll have to check in later with our copter camera!", Tom declares.

"Up next, It's Dahm Good with Jeffery! Showing us what body parts will give you the proper nutrients!", Katie shoves Tom to the side, sending him flying. "All that and more after the break!", she finishes, throwing her mug at Tom.

.

"You tacky piece of shit!", Alastor growls, using a tendril to hurl a large piece of debris at Vox.

Earlier, before the fight had started, the red dressed demon had begun breaking the studio building and wanted to do it live. So he summoned his cane, placing it just behind him to broadcast and possibly record for you to listen later. However Vox quickly put a stop to that by summoning up wires to toss whatever he could to injure his rival, breaking the microphone in the process.

"Tacky!?", Vox shouts offended, barely dodging the piece of cement. "At least I don't look like something in a antique store!"

"Antiques are treasured.", he hisses, opening up a portal behind the t.v. demon. "Not like some shitty television that can be tossed out."

Alastor's smile widens as a tendril comes up and latches on his rival's arm from the portal, yanking him back.

Vox's screen cracks on the ground, a corner breaking off completely.

Music to the Radio Demon's ears as the arm twists, breaking in half revealing wires, metal, and sparks.

"Two can play that game!", Vox shouts, sending wires to shoot towards Alastor.

He's able to dodge most of them, but a small one manages to wrap around his neck, tightening as it sends a surge of electricity.

The T.V. demon's screen flickers. Vox scowls as he feels himself start to shut down.

With one last effort, he has the wire around his rival's neck send another shock, worse than the one before.

Blood gushes out of Alastor's mouth. He chuckles, his voice distorted with heavy radio static as he disappears through the shadows.

Leaving Vox lying on the ground with a cracked screen and a twisted arm.

.

You were sitting at the bar after waking up from a long nap, sipping the drink you had with a silly straw and kicking your feet like a kid. Husk had a little t.v. at the corner of the bar, made to stay out of Vox's range.

"Ah fuck.", the cat demon grumbles as the news takes over his show.

"We are back to take a look at the Overlord battle! It seems like it finished not too long ago! The Radio Demon is nowhere to be seen but Vox is still in the area.", the skinny blonde says with a sickeningly wide smile. "We'll get more details soon! Our next story-!"

Husk changes the channel with a huff. "Annoying bitch.", he grumbles.

"Fight? Since when?", you ask and look at Husk confused.

"Don't look at me, I don't know shit.", he says and opens a bottle of booze.

Feeling worried, you decide to pay a visit to Alastor's radio tower in the colony.

"Alastor?", you call out once entering the building, walking up the stairs to get to his recording room.

After looking around, you find that its empty and take a moment to think of where else your friend could be.

The basement?

With a shrug, you start going down stairs and go through the back door that leads to the hallway. You hear a familiar sound and go down the hall, opening the basement door. Making your way down some more stairs and over to the sounds of crackling static.

"Al?", you call out.

There's a flash of red to your left. Looking over, you see Alastor holding his neck and kneeling on the floor, almost gasping for breath.

"Oh shit, Al!", you run over and slide on your knees to get to him. "What happened?", you ask now in front of him.

There's blood dripping from his mouth, his eyes still radio dials.

"Can you talk?", you ask, carefully placing your hand on his cheek to wipe away some blood splatter.

He tries to speak, but grumbling static cuts through and he coughs up blood.

You quickly shush him. "Let's get you cleaned up."

Dragging a tall cannibalistic demon to his room was not what you had planned today but you could make an acception. His eyes slowly go back to normal, now looking exhausted.

"Upsy-daisy", you say as you lift him up a bit and place him on the couch.

Al? Can you hear me? You ask, trying to talk in the head space.

Its mostly for long distance communication but it works well for any situation, something you both agreed upon when going over the details of the deal.

He doesn't respond, instead turning his head away from you. You feel him block you out, very much like closing the door in your face.

"Fine, you don't have to talk that way. How about your microphone, hm? I'm sure he'll speak to me.", you ask, placing your hands on your hips.

Alastor cringes, his smile forced. With a wave of his hand, the microphone appears.

In half.

"......", you're in shock like surprised pikachu as you hold the poor broken cane. "What the fuck!? How-! Wha-", you look down at Mic's closed eye and back at Alastor.

He still won't look at you.

.

You've been taking care of him for a while now.

Making him food easy to eat, taking over most of the weird chores, and playing music in the recording room to make it seem like all was fine.

Fixing Mic was a little tricky but you got it after a good two weeks. The cane soon took the radio broadcasting from your hands.

Alastor...was still upset, he hadn't tried to speak to you through your shared mind link or Mic.

You were done and you were going to kick that damn "door" down. Sitting down across from him at the end of his bed, you cross your arms and look right at him laying in bed.

Friendship therapy bitch! You broke down the door.

He turned his head to look at you in surprise, as if he didn't think you'd be able to do that.

I've spent years disassociating in my head, it should not be a surprise. You wear a straight face.

Get out. He sighs and looks away.

No, you need to talk to me and I'm not leaving until you do. You frown.

I have nothing to tell you. He furrows his brows.

Bullshit. You huff.

What do you want me to say? Alastor turns to look at you. I failed to get rid of that scum? That I couldn't rip him to shreds because losing my voice was worse than anything else? That I'm too weak because of backing out for that reason!?

"You are not weak.", you say out loud. "Your voice is part of your power and its completely understandable why you left."

He rolls his eyes and looks away from you again.

Your frown deepens. "Vox hasn't made any appearances since that fight."

Alastor perks up at that, looking at you with interest.

"Oh, now you listen?", you let a smile slip. "He hasn't shown up in any talk show's, at clubs..", you begin to laugh and cover your mouth.

He starts to smile genuinely.

"When 666 news asked for an interview, you could easily tell it was a prerecorded voice to answer questions...pfft! You could hear Velvette and Valentino fighting over which buttons were the right ones to press! Hahahaha!", you laugh loudly, not being able to contain it for much longer.

His shoulders shake as he silently laughs along with you.

Thank you.

"No problem.", you say after finishing your last fit of giggles. "Just remember that I will kick that door down again if you don't talk to me when you clearly need to."

Noted.

Your friend could be an idiot sometimes, but you're an idiot too. So, whatever.

~

The title is perfect✨ Mwuah💋

~Seline, the person.

From the prompt-list: ✨here✨

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An extra bit that's not in the story, just for fun:

Warning: suggestive

"So you're like his nurse?", Angel asks with a raised brow.

You were currently making soup, the easiest thing Alastor could eat with how badly his throat is damaged.

"Does that mean you wear the skimpy nurse outfit and do check ups?", the spider demon winks at the last part.

"Angel!", you gasp out, face flushed. "No! Bad!", you scold and whack him with a spoon.

"Ow! Hey!", he flinches away.

[heedra]

hi ms. lydia! i trust your tastes so i've come to ask, what are your favorite webcomics - very much including those that were cancelled or are currently in unending hiatus!

Oh my gosh, sorry it took me so long to answer this, questions like this always knock the memory of everything I've ever read straight out of my brain. Also I wanted to think really hard abt this bc I've read a ton of interesting webcomics and nailing down personal faves is hard! Here's a few I really especially love:

-Octopus Pie: Possibly my very favorite webcomic of all time. Meredith Gran is so good at writing well well-rounded, interesting, fallible characters in very human situations.

-Dr. Cataclysm: My other very favorite webcomic of all time, I think. Ppl may know the creator for his more famous work, the rpgmaker game OFF, but I think the spark that made OFF special shines through even stronger in his comics work. The kind of comic that makes me want to get up and dance.

-Hitmen for Destiny: This webcomic has made me laugh harder and more frequently than any other I've ever read. I think anyone who finds themselves getting artistic tunnelvision about what they think it takes to make a webcomic 'the right way' should really take a look at the fucking comedy opus that Thorsby has made here.

Other webcomics I think are rlly worth checking out:

-Val and Isaac

-Bybloemen

-Gather Ye Power!

-Tiger, Tiger

-Kill Six Billion Demons

-Paranatural

-Rice Boy (and other works by Evan Dahm)

-Ten Earth-Shattering Blows

-Griz Grobus

[tanadrin]

under a cut because long, disorganized, self-indulgent

ok so the Lende Empire isn’t really feudal; I despise feudal stasis in fantasy, like even the shortest timeline puts the Andal invasion at more than 2,000 ybp in Game of Thrones, you really think in all that time everybody on the continent is dumb enough to not invent a better plough? or glass just good enough to grind lenses? or make small improvements in windmill design? and all that shit adds up and BAM before you know it, you've got metallurgy good enough to make a steam engine with, so no matter what BS magical physics you come up with, if things work at the human scale even remotely like they do in our world, your age of knights and castles and dragons not having to contend with antiaircraft guns has a limited shelf-life.

(and that's interesting! And more people--by which i mean people besides Terry Pratchett, who did this wonderfully--should write about high fantasy worlds before they reached Medieval Stasis Mode, and after they left it! I would fukkin kill to read a good high fantasy book that also had, like spaceships in it. Insofar as genre conventions have evolved not according to the internal logic of the worlds they depict but according to how and for what reason they serve as commentaries on specific aspects of our own world and its history, and are aimed at evoking certain emotions, it's understandable why such generic mishsmashes are relatively uncommon. But people also definitely read speculative fiction because they like internally cohesive worlds very different from our own, so it is my fondest hope that this sort of thing becomes more popular going forward)

(you can of course also have fantasy worlds which are *not* very much like our own world at human scale. Greg Egan actually does this in a science fiction mode, but as long as you're positing a world where dimensions of space are hyperbolic like time or where humans change sex every time they have sex because trading a detachable symbiotic penis is part of having an orgasm, whether you call this stuff "different science" or "magic" is really beside the point. I have an idea I've been batting around for a while about a world divided, like Evan Dahm's Overside, or the two parallel worlds in Fringe, except part of the division is not just physical, but metaphysical. Morality itself in each subworld is defective, because each subworld got a different part of a morally and metaphysically unified whole: thus, for reasons nobody can understand, almost every ethical system derived by people resident in only one subworld is deeply defective, and would be horrifying to us--as though, perhaps, our own complex and nuanced moral landscape that we wrestle with was a kind of grand unified theory whose symmetry had been broken, and which was only understood piecemeal, as totally separate concepts. And of course, if you live in one subworld everyone from the other subworld is a horrifying monster whose morality is totally incomprehensible to you, so you reflexively treat them as an enemy.)

History isn't just one thing after another. I mean, okay, it is, but it's *also* the aftereffects of those things, the things that stick around forever and can't be gotten away from. And just like how if you want to understand our own world you need to look at what it was like five years ago, and to understand what it was like five years ago you need to look at what it was like ten years ago, and fifteen, ad nauseam, until you're suddenly back at World War II, or the Holy Roman Empire, or Sumer, or struggling through the ever-increasing fog of a steadily more ambiguous archeological record, well, this is as true for politics and language as it is the material aspects of society. In the same way maps feel insufficient when the artist doesn't think about what's beyond the edge of the page (not to knock on GRRM too much, but if you put all the continents and seas in his world on the same map, you notice they're all really... rectangular. Like he drew them to fit individual pieces of paper. Rivers and island arcs get compressed when they near a margin. Seas are just voids. Nothing ever has to be moved to a little box in a corner to fit. there's no attempt at verisimilitude), I think invented worlds feel insufficient when the writer asks you to take them seriously as a reflection of our own, or an aspect of our own, but neglects to at least suggest their place in a larger whole.

I wanted with the Lende Empire to have something that still let me have a lot of early centuries of sword-and-horse style adventures (because i started writing about Lende when I was thirteen and had just finished the Silmarillion for the second time), and I wanted when writing its history to still be able to take big chunks of story I stole from Norse legends and medieval poetry and dump them almost whole into the setting, but I also wanted the history not to read like a fantasy history--or not just a fantasy history. What I mean is, when you read something like the Silmarillion, or when a character in a fantasy world relates some legend to you, even if it's referred to as an old and ambiguous tale, you still often feel like that's really what happened. Like, for me, one of the chief emotional attractions to something like the tales of the wars of the Goths and Huns, or Beowulf's description of Migration Age Denmark filtered through Anglo-Saxon poetic tropes, or the Icelandic family sagas, is that we really have a hard time knowing how much of it is true, how much of its is plausible embellishment, and how much of it is anachronistic nonsense or pure bullshit. Is the Njala based on a faithfully recounted tradition passed down orally for a few hundred years? Who knows! Not us. We know a guy named Njal got burned in his house around 1000 AD, but much of the mystery and the poignancy of stories like that for me lies in the difficulty of ascertaining their relationship to the truth.

What I want(ed) was something that when you read it made you think "ok, obviously the narrator is trying their best, but even they don't know exactly what the fuck happened; this is probably one third ambiguous tradition, one third solid, one third bullshit." So the Chronicle of Lende has some stuff in it that's intentionally difficult to reconcile. It has weird tonal shifts. The first third owes a lot to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the sagas and the Hildebrantslied; the middle is closer to the Silmarillion, or the history of Rome when told more from the Great Man perspective than the Impersonal Forces one, and the last third starts out that way but goes some weird places and veers off at the end to what is obviously a symbolic and highly abstracted mode of narration which, in relating the destruction of the Empire imitates the way in which its beginning is related (for in-universe Thematic Reasons), *but* while all this is going on, the hope is that the reader is *also* able to glimpse through these ambiguities and stylistic quirks, and incompatibilities, and weird digressions involving talking animals or the spirit world, a society that's undergoing familiar demographic and social and technological transitions: moving from oral culture agrarianism to the beginnings of a real urban civilization, with a centralized state and the written word, and like Western Europe having to figure out a social structure in the absence of any good nearby imperial models (they end up with something more like fraternal warrior societies being deputized to control land rather than feudal lords, but the essential logic is the same); but then moving to a real model of administrative statehood, as infrastructure and technology improve, before industrialization kicks off, the population explodes, social tensions inherent in that begin tearing at the seams of society, and the horrors of industrialized warfare are unleashed.

There are meant to be striking differences, too, of course. Lende history is only about a thousand Earth years long, and it's confined mostly to the western side of a continent split by a huge, Himalayan-like mountain range. Its rapid rise and increase in technological sophistication are due to exogenous factors (genuine divine intervention in some cases), and equally even the True Secret History of the empire's destruction has no real-world parallels, at least not since the Channeled Scablands formed 14,000 years ago. It's also teeeechnically science fiction and not fantasy, though that distinction really rests on tone and not on setting IMO. But I don't think it's possible to tell what feels like a real history of a world without sometimes radically changing genres: our own history goes from dry science (geology, paleontology, archeology) to legend and myth and scripture, to dusty old classical history and books penned by ancients who sometimes have startlingly different notions about what merits mention in a story and how to tell one, to tales of kings and queens and conquerors, before emerging blinking in the sunlight of dry matter of fact narration again. I have always believed conventions, including those of genre and style, should be tools and not straightjackets. The best worldbuilding literature I have read steals from a huge variety of sources (and Pratchett deserves a mention here again, alongside Susanna Clarke, and Ada Palmer, and the people who wrote the Elder Scrolls backstory, and Sofia Samatar, and Angelica Gorodischer).

[one-ishmael]

Chapter 7: The Chapel

Let’s move on to some capital-T Theology in this next run of chapters in Moby-Dick; or, the Whale! I’ll say ahead of time that I am, at best, an amateur theologian, having taken only a few classes on the subject in college, and none of them even remotely relating to 19th century Christianity.

But, having been raised in a denomination that encourages scholarship of the Bible, following @benito-cereno for many years on this site, and listening to his wonderful podcast @apocrypals, I know a thing or three about the following of ol’ Oily Josh.

SUMMARY: Ishmael returns to the inn after his morning perambulations, then leaves again to visit the famous Whaleman’s Chapel of New Bedford. The weather has turned bad, sleeting heavily, but he makes it there, crusted over in ice. The chapel is already half full of various worshipers, each sitting apart and silently in their grief, gazing at the memorial tablets on the wally behind the pulpit. Queequeg is there, but because he can’t read he is unaffected by the gravity of the scene.

So, we transition ever so smoothly from Ishmael extolling the merits of the whale fishery, rhapsodizing about how it has made New Bedford a paradise on earth when it was previously a blasted waste, straight into this, a contemplation of the cost of that wealth. Not only the lives lost in gaining it, but the grief of those left behind, the shipmates and relatives who now suffer eternal grief.

Ishmael explains that the deaths of whalemen in the process of their craft is especially harsh, as their bodies are usually unrecoverable. A boat is simply carried off over the horizon, and everyone on it is accounted as dead. A man is dragged beneath the waves after not cutting a rope soon enough, never to be seen again. He goes overboard during a squall, and only noticed in the morning’s accounting.

Thus, the grief is more keenly felt by those in this particular chapel. Which is a real place, it turns out, but is called the Seaman’s Bethel and not the Whaleman’s Chapel. It is preserved exactly as it is described in this book, and you can go there, in New Bedford, and gaze at those tablets yourself, if you so wish.

Not knowing where your loved one’s body ended up is tragic, because how will you find them when the resurrection comes? Indeed, Ishmael posits that this is the reason the grief is all the deeper and intractable in this place. It undermines the very faith of the grievers, how can they believe in Eternal Life if the bodies of their beloved lay at the bottom of some ocean, thousands of miles away?

This is referring to the concept of Jesus returning to grant eternal life to all who have died. The idea being that when you die, you don’t just go to heaven immediately, but have to stay dead for a while, until Jesus returns to Earth to raise the righteous dead and bring them with him up into paradise. So the placement of bodies after death becomes a very important thing, in Christianity.

There’s a whole Thing about what these resurrected dead will be like, and be able to do, which is buck-fucking-wild, but I’m not gonna get into that here. Check out episode 5 of the aforementioned podcast, Apocrypals, for more info on all that.

Getting back to the text, I really didn’t understand this bit at all the first time I read it, but now it makes more sense, being aware of the whole second-coming-resurrection thing. Ishmael gets more philosophical here, wondering why people care so much about where the bodies lay, or why people care about their loved ones being dead at all! After all, they’ll be back as immortal spirits in no time. They’re not even really dead, just resting until the second coming.

And yet, there is grief. There is sorrow eternal, over the placeless dead. There is fear over the idea of resurrection itself. Ishmael seems to be picking at a contradiction here, that people don’t really believe in these things. Or, that the faith itself only sustains itself by offering hope to those in the depths of despair. You may say, taking advantage of those who are desperate for a shimmer of hope.

But Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.

Then, Ishmael gets really philosophical, right in the last paragraph.

After contemplating the tablets seemingly foretelling his own death in his forthcoming voyage, he decides to take the whole thing in stride. Sure, maybe he’ll die in some ignominious way in some random accident, but so what? He’s just getting it over with, getting a promotion to an immortal spirit, shedding his earthly form early.

Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of Life and Death. Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance. Methinks that in looking at things spiritual, we are too much like oysters observing the sun through the water, and thinking that thick water the thinnest of air. Methinks my body is but the lees of my better being. In fact take my body who will, take it I say, it is not me. And therefore three cheers for Nantucket; and come a stove boat and stove body when they will, for stave my soul, Jove himself cannot.

So, what we see as the world is not necessarily the truth of it. Ishmael is going full Descartes here, saying that the only thing you can know for sure is that you exist. The true nature of the world is not revealed to us by appearances.

That is definitely gonna show up a lot in this book, as an ongoing theme. The world that presents itself to our eyes, at a glance, is not even a fraction of the whole story when it comes to whales. Why should it be so for anything else? What appears to be the important things in life, the physical things, are just impermanent shadows, compared to the eternal nature of the soul!

Sounds an awful lot like Gnosticism to me, frankly. Melville was a bit of a heretic! Not that he ever claimed not to be. Gnosticism being the off-shoot of christianity, going way back to the very early days, which posits that the physical world was made by an evil being called the Demiurge and exists only to corrupt the pure, spiritual essence of mankind.

But, really, Melville isn’t being specific enough to be slotted into any particular theology or philosophy. The whole point is that knowledge is impossible. You can try and try, but to really get to the true truth? The real reality? It is completely unknowable whether you’ve ever reached it. 

I warned you it was gonna be a big one, for such a short chapter. And this isn’t even getting into all the meaning I could wring out of that line about faith being like a jackal. I’ve basically made that quote the basis for this indie game project I’ve been working on, and even used it as a prospective name!

The deep stuff in this book comes out of nowhere, sometimes. One chapter Ishmael is opining about how pretty the girls of New Bedford are in the spring, and the next he’s saying it’s okay if he dies because this physical world is but an illusion. Go figure!

As always, you can follow along with the full text of the book FOR FREE on Gutenberg dot org. Or, there are many free or very cheap editions available on amazon dot com. And if you really want to get fancy, check out the illustrated edition by one Evan Dahm, the author of the webcomics Rice Boy and Vattu.

Until next time, shipmates!

[orbyssarchives]

A Brief tl;dr

This is probably a lot to say for 20 unfinished webcomic pages and I know I can be fairly long-winded so if you just wanna skip ahead and click through the pictures I’ve put up, I understand.

The TL;DR is

Hello and welcome to Mage Punk Archives! My name is Tables and this is some of the work that I’ve done over the last few years and what I’ve been up to in my little corner of the world. This is the third and last of a series of posts, outlining a number of updates that I completed on the site.

Included are some of my inspirations and a little of what I’ve learned so far about myself as an ever growing artist up to this point.

After this, I want to keep the content more focused on the actual art and story.

  I’ll post to this site as often as I am able.

    Thanks for reading!

  ***

Long Ago, Before the miracle of handheld internet searches and Instagram

When I was but a young, internet webling, I was heavily into shitty online flash games and looking for anything even remotely related to my interests at the time. From Mario and Sonic to various comics, videos games, anime and things never to be said aloud (pornpornporn). My love of the likes of Super Mario Bros and Sonic the Hedgehog (big fandoms for me at the time) would later lead me to sprite comics. Today, my feelings for the little hodge podge collage strips of old video game sprite sheets and backgrounds are a little mixed.

(They were beautiful and I’m gonna make one someday)

Then, in Highschool, I took a basic Web Design class. It was a VVoid World Web of Notepad and Internet Explorer where a kindly old crone passed on to those of us there, some knowledge of the ancient runic language which forms the foundations of the World Wide Web: HTML. Tables, frames, css, oh my! This knowledge would eventually prove invaluable.

Throughout our studies we were occasionally allowed to venture out into the Wider World Web. It was during these little adventures and travels across the Web that I happened upon the magical land of Webcomics. It was also during this time that I began break free of the enchantment of sprites. Even though I would probably never return to them, they would always hold a special place in my heart.

  The Internet is for [Comics]

    Webcomics – Synonymous with “Masochism”

At first, I had no idea just how grueling webcomics could be. Most webcomic artists pump out pages one to three times a week. At the time I got into them, MegaTokyo, then still partially a video game webcomic, was just releasing its third printed book; 2-3 updates a week with a loosely set schedule. Evan Dahm was wrapping up his surreal fantasy epic, Rice Boy; with updates consistently going up Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The various sprite and drawn webcomics that I was following at the time were updating all the time. Seeing all the great work going up, I felt encouraged to try it myself.

I drew these closer to the end of my junior year of high school.

Desu

Taking major inspiration from a lot of the manga and anime that I was enjoying then, I used pen and ink to make my comic pages. I liked working in black and white because it felt direct and skipping on color made it easier to finish faster. I figured I could work faster if I didn’t have to worry about the extra step. When I did want to use color, as is typical for the early pages of a new manga, I used markers.

At the time, I had no idea that mangakas used assistants. That’s messed up.

Not to say that it was completely unrealistic, but back in the real world I could only average one black and white page a week. If even. The spider webs I was drawing all over were so that I wouldn’t have to use a ruler to draw my panel proper borders. I thought it gave the comic an “old archive”. In the end, I concluded that the spider webs should have their place and not be all over.

This time, I decided to work a little more carefully and deliberately.

  Moving Forward

It was going pretty well but by the time page 7 rolled around, it was time for midterms and I had become too self-conscious and uncomfortable with the way I was drawing my comic pages then. Then, it was time to take finishing high school seriously and before I knew it, I was a freshman at The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. I did a lot of growing in the next four years that I attended there. Unfortunately, I never revisited those pages. Instead, near the end of my sophomore year, I took a Sequential Art class where the Final was a full-color, 5-page comic.

These are the ink-wash versions of the 7-page Final that I submitted. I’d originally colored them digitally to meet project requirements but I don’t want to post those just yet..

  In the End

I wasn’t satisfied. The truth was that I waited until the last minute, rushed it, and over-reached on a re-draw that wasn’t much fun for me to work on. During the course of that Sequential Art class my professor turned my attention to artists like Moebius and Mike Mignola. I also came across Katsuya Terada’s stuff around this time.

  And school went on…

    I worked on Mage Punk when I could between assignments.

    Between thinking I could possibly work on a for-print comic…

    …and a webcomic at the same time.

  The End was Near

Most of these were actually made towards the end of my four years at Ai. Those of us graduating were tasked with compiling our work from the years past in accordance with the requirements for obtaining our degrees. I believe that we were given two semesters to gather our pieces and do any revisions to previous works to get them up to date with the rest of the portfolio piece. Illustration Graduates at AiFL were typically required to gather a required selection of their work into an on-demand printed book. The year that I graduated, my department decided to change things around a little. Specifically, we were given the option to collect the requirement work into a plain black binder portfolio and make the printed book more geared towards our pursuits. I opted to make a Mage Punk/Orbyss Archives “Zine” as my main portfolio piece.

  And Then College was Over

I drew a few more pages of the comic until I became employed full-time. These days, there aren’t enough free hours in my days for me to keep up with any typical webcomic’s update schedule so for a long while I stopped working on the comic altogether. I’m squeezing as much work out of every second that I’m not there; with whatever energy I can muster. This includes planning, writing, sketching and drawing. Before I got back to work on the site, I was posting fairly regularly to my Twitter and Instagram; those posts took time to do as well.

  Most of this post was written in separate sessions on my commutes to work.

“Shortcuts”

Even though I always wanted to present Mage Punk as a webcomic, I always worked on it like it would go to print eventually. This created a confusing mindset for me when working on the comic, where I had to work on a whole book, but I have to rush to finish every page. If I wanted to put out pages more frequently I took shortcuts at any point I could to be done with them. Even if I created a good buffer of finished pages, I’d still run into that same pitfall eventually. I wasn’t enjoying my project because of a pressure I applied on myself to finish it in a way I wasn’t necessarily comfortable with. I didn’t even get that much done in the end.

It’s important that I work on it at a pace that lets me show the best of my ability. I would love it if I could be properly finished with the pages before I post them but if I wait before it’s all good and done I’ll just never get around to posting anything, forever floating, aimlessly, throughout creative internet limbo.

Instead, if I have to work on my comic in piecemeal, I’ll just post it up in piecemeal. Mage Punk will still be presented as a webcomic but, until the end of the book is done, certain changes are still a possibility. Editing is an important part of producing any book and I’m going to make its presentation reflect that.

  Cue Rhidiculous shouting “I told you so!” from some nearby bushes.

  A Webcomic in Presentation Only?

Those Two Images are the Same Page

Instead of trying to finish things at breakneck speeds, I’m going to work on the comics at a more reasonable pace. I’ll try to work on it mainly Chapter to chapter instead of page to page like how a webcomic normally is done (buffers aside) This gives me the opportunity to take a step back and get a broader look at the story while still putting out content in enjoyable chunks.

It’s difficult for me to wrap my head around drawing a comic on a start-to-finish, page-by-page basis. While I was working on the later pages in the chapter I kept finding myself jumping around and making changes to previous pages to make some things more consistent with later parts of the story. Instead of working page-by-page, I was editing the chapter as a whole to try to strengthen the narrative I’m trying to tell.

To that end, I still want to present it on this site as a webcomic; if only in name and archive.

The Process

At the VERY longtime behest of my editor, I’ll be presenting the comic as a work in progress at various points in the following production stages.

Writing

I’ll post dialog excerpts here and there. Nothing that can spoil the story too much.

This step will be kept largely behind the scenes.

Thumbnails

I do these on index cards in ballpoint pen to figure out the sequence of events that I most prefer.

This is the step where I’m prone to overloading a page with information.

First Drafts

Full size roughs of the earlier thumbnails. This step helps me get a better sense of how crowded or unbalanced a page might be early on.

This step also helps to prune out any strenuous scenes or dialog that could otherwise have their own pages.

If it isn’t working visually at this point, it’s not going to work in the next step.

Pencils

This is where the real drawing happens. Drawings in this step are made by either digital or traditional means depending on when or where I’m working.

Inking

This step is exactly like the drawing step but in pen and ink. Despite my affinity for real pen and ink, I’ll mainly be working this step digitally.

Color

This step is wrought with indecision but it also one of the faster, more fun steps to do.

Lettering

I’ve removed the dialog from all the pages currently up, opting to keep that out until a chapter is completed; it’s the thing I’m likeliest to change the most frequently until the end.

All lettering is currently done digitally but I’m considering the possibility of hand lettering.

Drawing dialog can be quite fulfilling but it takes a lot of practice.

Editing

This part will be happening all throughout. Page re-orders, panel redraws, changes in dialog.

Until the book is done.

  Here We Are

I’ve already made some revisions to a handful of the pages that are already up; if you browse through the comics you can see the revisions noted in the comic descriptions. I’ll make blog posts for any major revisions or series of revisions that I do. I have a few ideas for some smaller projects that I can work on while I work on Mage Punk. Whether they be illustrations, stories, or even mini-comics like this silly thing down here.

      Moving on

I might have also mentioned before that I have a few other drawings that I wanted to make for the site. In particular I have a neat idea for some social media icon illustrations. I wanna make something that takes advantage of what I’ve learned with using CSS. It’s nothing too fancy.

All that said, future posts will be a bit more brief than these last three were. I’d much rather write and post about the work itself, but I feel like I’ve hit a personal milestone and felt the need to ramble on about it a little.

    Until next time,

  Thanks for reading!

    The Big Site Update (Part 3) A Brief tl;dr This is probably a lot to say for 20 unfinished webcomic pages and 

[cwhldaily]

ADT GOALIE OF THE WEEK (DEC. 4-DEC. 10, 2017)

With 108 combined votes through CWHL polls via Twitter and thecwhl.com, Boston Blades goaltender Lauren Dahm has been named the ADT Goalie of the Week for the week ending Sunday, December 10.

Dahm impressed in a two-game road series versus the Markham Thunder picking up 74 total saves. The Baldwinsville, New York native opened the weekend with a strong 40 save performance, allowing only one goal in regulation to secure a point for the Blades in an eventual shootout loss. Dahm then followed that with another solid outing, making 34 saves through 60 minutes of end-to-end action. In the two games, Dahm posted a save percentage of .948 and a goals against average of 1.96.

[souichipresents]

Souichi Presents: What Horrors Lurk... in the Iron Circus

Kyahaha! Hello hello hello, once again it is time for.. SOUICHI PRESENTS! Where we’ll one day have reviewed every single Junji Itou comic ever made, after which we’ll... presumably switch over to a episode by episode review of every scooby doo episode ever made. It’s a work in progress concept. 

BUT that day won’t happen anytime soon, because the thing is? People just keep on making amazing horror work. I genuinely beleive that there may not have even been such an amazing time for horror. Ive mentioned it before, but the internet, independently created scene is a godsend for this genre. 

From keeping up with new and emerging short video format horror through the great Night Mind channel, to following horror illustrators and comic creators I love. And the comics. Oh, the comics! That’s what we’re here to talk about today. There’s so many good horror comics out there; and today I’d like to talk about an anthology I’ve been meaning to review for a long, long time now... 

SOUICHI PRESENTS: THE SLEEP OF REASON (Part One)

(Cover art by Michael Deforge)

The Sleep of Reason is a FANTASTIC horror comic anthology, with 26 chilling, creepy, and strange stories. Produced by Iron Circus Comics, who as far as I’m concerned, is one of the companies to keep an eye on for independent publishing, which was single handedly built from the floor up by the amazing C. Spike Trotman. Iron Circus Comics has put out such great works as Poorcraft, Smut Peddler, Shadoweyes Vol 1, and more! 

I was excited to get my hands on this, and it completely delivered. So why haven’t I reviewed it yet? Well... because, honestly? Some is just scheduling, memory, already having this or that on the docket. But also... Some of these stories are too scary for me. I had to take breaks reading it! I had to wait a while. See, part of why I run this blog is I’d already read the complete works of Junji Ito- over and over and over again, enough to work the sting out of them. 

This? This has a sting and a half. And there’s enough stories here, and enough to say about them, that being as exhaustive as I am for normal stories would be... a literal half a years worth of regular updates. So I’m going to be talking about my favorites, in order. 

As for stories left out? Some are just fine, but didn’t catch my eye. Maybe one or two I hate. But some? Honestly? Are too upsetting for me. Not the fun upsetting. That doesn’t make them bad horror. I even love some of them- they could even wind up being your favorites. But your dear host has even his limits, if you can forgive me. <3 

Let’s get started with.... 

The Child Eater, by Meg Gandy

Content Warnings for: Spousal abuse, (not seen but for sure) rape, child abuse, body horror, death.  

Any kid who grew up in rough times of any level can tell you, imagination is a powerful way to escape. This short isn’t about imagination. But it’s about the reason why a little kid might need one: kids can be all, all, all too aware of exactly what horrors are going on around them. 

And the horror here is, for the most part, going on AROUND little Ruthie here; the real life horror. Whatever else might be going on.... well there’s monsters, and there’s monsters. And I won’t lie guys; it’s a rouge bite. 

Horror is a way to talk about vulnerability. It can be a way to talk about things that scare us without talking about them directly. Well. This isn’t a comforting veneer of abstraction and fantasy kind of story. And it’s about the most vulnerable kind of hero you could possibly imagine. And it does it with art that uses a deft hand on details and emotional weight- we ARE in Ruthies shoes, we’re walking with her. 

And I won’t tell you where she decides to go; only that it’s one of the most grimly satisfied endings i’ve run across. 

The Waiting Game, a Nightmare by Carla Speed McNeil

Content warnings for: Starvation, suicide, body horror, non consensual voyeurism. 

Somehow, this story seems so much longer then it actually is, when you’re reading it. And that could not possibly be more apt for the story that it is; the slow, second by second agony of the story’s unnamed, ungendered subject. Our subject, who’s life is such agony that they can only wait, desperately, for an end. But we don’t need to be told that. 

In fact, we aren’t told much at all. But the beauty of this story- and there are many- is that we’re left to let the horror unfold in our own minds eye. The crowds of the rich, eager, leaning over each others shoulders, anticipatory. 

Hungry. 

What kind of entertainment do people want, if they can have anything. Anything in the whole world?

And how badly do we suffer for it. 

Found Object, by Britt C. H. 

Content warnings for: death, gore. 

Well first of all I’ll ask you to stay out of my three AM discord conversations. If theres a comic in here with a conversation about Donald Ducks emotional depth, I’m... well actually that’d be AMAZING. But I digress! 

This is the kind of story I could use as a thesis support; a genuine fear touched on through a strange event. It lays it’s self out flat and clean; in both structure and subject, I consider this an amazingly classic horror piece, to my sensibilities. 

Something I’m fond of about horror is that it has a unique quality: It can only obfuscate how it’s plot is going to go but so far. Specifically I mean: It’s horror, so you know something terrible is going to happen. The story begins; something is introduced. We, the audience, become immediately aware this ‘thing’ is going to be something horrifying. 

What matters isn’t the what. it’s the how. And this has a magnificent how. 

The Grackle Bride, by Randal Milholland 

Content Warnings for: Death. Birds. 

If like me, you happen to have been following Mr. Milholland’s work since... oh, say... middle school, you wouldn’t be too surprised to see his work here. Every year readers of his comic have enjoyed “The Last Trick-or-Treaters”, a beautiful watercolor series about... well. Children! Having... adventures.... that might end... lets say badly! For those children. 

But that’s a horse of a different color. For this collection, we’re treated to a beautifully folkloric yarn- just the kind of mysterious, slightly gruesome story I would have devoured as a child myself. It feels authentic; you have your poor farmer, and his only daughter. A beautiful girl... only all she seems to care about are those grackles.

It’s a thrill of a yarn at that. Cosy, even! Might depend a bit on how you feel about birds....

Proliferation, by Lin Visel and J.R. Cullen

Content warnings for: Death.

Interesting to think about is- how little information can you use to make sure your audience knows what you mean? This story I think, hits very close to that edge; if you walked into this story completely missing a key piece of outside information, I still think you would get the idea through the context clues, especially combined with the title. 

That’s impressive; but even more impressive to me is this is one of those horror stories I get a sense of temperature- atmosphere. The wet, sweltering heat of your own breath passing through you. The horrible chill of air meeting sweating, clammy skin. The horrible stillness of a forest. 

I do love short horror; and I’m always pleased to let the story sit as it is; a fragmenting little prism of moments. But this one I think I’d love to see more of; more of what’s happening. Maybe that would ruin it; but I know that it means a story has an inviting texture. As inviting as the temptation to keep on walking a little... further. 

Just a little more. 

Artifacts, by Evan Dahm

I have a complicated relationship with the phrase ‘cosmic horror’. Once you get too good a look at the lineage of the ideas it’s... well folks, it’s kind of all racism and penguins down there. But I still remember the thrill at the idea- the notion of something... so strange and unknowable. The idea that there is a scale of size we can’t even begin to comprehend; that we might as well be ants, blindly trying to make sense of things we can’t even see. 

This story makes me feel like I’m sitting between the stacks of the library, lost in the quiet terror of the idea of those horizons dropping away. 

To me, making our protagonist an artist solves- immediately- a lot of the problem this kind of story can have. Why exactly would someone be studying something that leads somewhere... so odd? When its a scientist, or a researcher, it feels natural, but can get... odd. Not a lot of theoretical whatever's take hikes into abandoned buildings. But fine artists will do a lot of things. I learned in class about a man who laid under the floorboards of a gallery space making weird noises. 

A single man, slowly working and working and working on making something.... pure. Approaching something big. It could have happened already. 

That’s all for this week- I’ll continue reviewing this in short sections of my favorites. Check it out sometime if you can! I will say chapters I didn’t get to do have some raw stuff in them; as with any horror, specific subjects can kind of lunge at you. 

But it’s a representation of what I absolutely love: An independent, off the wall, beautiful set of horror comics. 

And as always... souichi WILL return!

[yolowoho]

Geneviève Lacasse makes a sweet save during the Feb 25 Toronto Furies at Calgary Inferno game as requested by @lauren-dahm-fan-club​ feat. two players falling over bc it’s funny and you can see Lacasse in the background scooping up the puck

[winterolympicssports2018-blog]

Canada runs roughshod over host Denmark at hockey worlds

Click here for More Olympics Updates https://www.winterolympian.com/canada-runs-roughshod-over-host-denmark-at-hockey-worlds/

Canada runs roughshod over host Denmark at hockey worlds

Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins are showing that the chemistry they’ve built as linemates with the Edmonton Oilers can translate to the international stage.

Nugent-Hopkins scored twice and McDavid had three assists as Canada cruised to a 7-1 victory over host Denmark on Monday at the world hockey championship.

Canada beat Denmark 7-1 for their 2nd straight win at the 2018 World Hockey Championship, moving them into 2nd place in group B behind the United States. 1:24

“They played quite a bit together down the stretch at the National Hockey League level and they’ve continued on here internationally,” Canada coach Bill Peters said. “They think the game at a high level and read off each other real well.”

Josh Bailey, Aaron Ekblad, Jordan Eberle, Ryan O’Reilly and Tyson Jost also scored for Canada, which now has two regulation wins and a shootout loss through three games.

Nugent-Hopkins, normally the No. 2 centre in Edmonton, was elevated to the left wing Oilers’ top line late in the NHL season and had 15 points in 13 games playing with McDavid.

The two are clicking again in Denmark. McDavid, who now has seven points through three games, had a hand in both of Nugent-Hopkins’ goals.

“The first one, I got a little lucky with where I placed it,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “I just tried to chip it out and get some speed. Connor drove the net, which drove back the [defenceman] a little bit. I just had to put it five-hole.”

‘I never want to give up a goal’

On his second goal, Nugent-Hopkins said: “Connor made a great play on the blue line, again. He created a lot of space and tried to find Schwartzy [Jaden Schwartz]. It bounced off the D-man’s skate and came to me out front. I just had to tuck it upstairs.”

Making his second start in as many games, Toronto Maple Leafs backup Curtis McElhinney was perfect until he was beaten on a shot by Jesper Jensen Aabo that deflected off a Canadian player, 8:07 into the third period.

“Just a redirection — that’s how things are going to go at this point I think,” said McElhinney. “Teams are just looking for bounces and stuff. They got one at the end.

“It’s tough; I never want to give up a goal but I thought overall the team played great in front of me tonight.”

The 34-year-old McElhinney, who is suiting up for Canada for the first time in his career at any level, made 14 saves as he continued his strong bid for the No. 1 job.

“Every test that he’s gotten, he’s stepped up to it,” Peters said. “There have been some really good chances that we’ve given up so he’s had to be sharp. That’s exactly what he’s done.”

Monday’s much-anticipated matchup between McElhinney and Maple Leafs goaltending partner, Frederik Andersen, didn’t materialize. Denmark coach Jan Karlsson elected to rest his top netminder against Canada after Andersen faced 80 shots in his first two games.

The host nation is currently in tough to reach the quarterfinal — tied for fifth place after three games, with the only top four advancing to the elimination round. Andersen will be needed for Denmark’s more winnable games through the remainder of the preliminary round.

Ice was tilted in Canada’s favour

Sebastian Dahm got his first start of the tournament for Denmark, making 22 saves on 29 shots.

The ice was tilted in Canada’s favour right from the opening puck drop. The visitors outshot their hosts 14-2 in the first period and took a 2-0 lead off a power-play goal from Bailey and an even-strength slap shot from the blue line by Ekblad, set up by a smooth cross-ice pass from McDavid.

After Mat Barzal had a power-play goal early in the second period waved off due to goaltender interference, Eberle converted in the slot on another power play for his second of the tournament at 4:16, before O’Reilly showed off his strong skating and slick hands with a roof job over Dahm’s glove at 6:53.

Nugent-Hopkins made it 5-0 just 24 seconds later, off the rush on a delayed penalty. He added his second of the game at the 6:43 mark of the third, and Jost finished off the scoring with his third of the tournament with 1:50 left in the third period.

With its enthusiasm sagging, the crowd of 10,800 at Jyske Bank Boxen sprang back to life when Denmark got on the board in the third period off a deflection in the slot that went between the legs of a surprised McElhinney. Fans stood and applauded their team with a thunderous ovation as the final seconds of the game wound off the clock.

In earlier action on Monday, Keith Kinkaid earned his second-straight shutout as the United States defeated Germany 3-0 to stay on top of the Group B standings, while Russia recorded its third-straight shutout with a 6-0 win over Belarus in Group A in Copenhagen. In the late game in Group A, Sweden beat France 4-0.

Canada now sits second in the Group B standings, one point behind the United States.

Canada’s next game is Thursday against Norway, which is 0-1-1-0 through two games.

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[cyclizine-sickness]

Lady you’re the one with the us vs them mentality why? Because you did the long ass paragraph about how slander is tearing this country apart and how good people are being chastised blah blah blah etc.... anyone that disagreed with you is brainwashed so people disapproving of trump and his twisted views are dividing this country not the many hateful alt right assaulting, harming and killing people no not them it’s us dahm trump haters. It’s alright for you to make paragraphs on assumptions and accusations on who you think I am but when I make one on the many reasons people don’t like trump “ I just like to hear myself talk”

Anyone that agrees with the hateful things trump spews I will immediately terminate that friendship. I don’t mind people having different political views than me I’m friends with a guy who is anti feminism but that’s his opinion we get along fine I let him use my Xbox account cause he can’t afford games and I get a new one every week. But if your political view is based on banning a certain group from coming into the country, attacking anyone who looks different from you or believing that some races are lazy and a strain on the economy then hell yea friendship terminated.

So you can demean me all you want because I’m someone who doesn’t like trump because his words and views effect people like me, he has a platform that his using to divide people. Trump supporters are going around calling I.C.E on their neighbors, classmates etc.. Hate groups are coming to his rallies screaming and spewing hate he refuses to denounce these people because they are majority of his voters. Some of trump cabinets are known white supremacist and trumps policies are effecting minority’s so excuse me if I a black woman want nothing to do with people who vote for him.

You being all “well I’m friends with some hardcore democrats” good for you booboo kitty but I doubt those people know what your like on this blog I’ve seen you reblog and say the most racist of things, so Why would I want to be friends with people like you?

[shamefly]

TBT RiceBoy Comics

For years I’ve been a huge fan of Evan Dahm’s works. It was Rice Boy and Order of Tales that really got me into comics and start making some of my own.

 Not sure if anyone here still remembers this, but back when the Rice-Boy website was still connected to (the now sadly dead)  Koala Wallop forums a user named Danke made a game of Overside where you play as T.O.E.  It never got past Suntown but you can still walk around, talk, and explore and buy items.

Link is here